The psychology of behaviour

 The psychology of behaviour: The lowest forms of living matter are sensitive to all shorts of stimuli. Living things respond to stimuli for survival. They are conscious of enviroment and adopt to it. This sensitivity to stimuli and purposeful reaction to them is equally characteristic of man as of all living things. The higher forms of life develop several specialised cell structure, some to perform physiological function of their body, and others to serve in different ways. Man has a nervous system with organs that may be classified into –

1.      Receptors: e.g- eyes, nose, ears which recieve stimuli from the external world.

2.     Conductors: e.g- Nerves- which carry stimuli from receptors; and

3.      Effectors: Muscles- which recieve stimuli from conductors and so that the body can adopt itself to its surroundings.

[## Physiological needs: Physiological needs are the basic needs of the human body such as nourishment or maintenance of body temperature]

## Psychological needs may also be universal and five have been so recognised.

1.      Society: Society is a group of people who have lived together long enough, sharing common values, and general interest to be considered as a social unit.

2.      Security: All men need to feel secure both physically and psychologically. Building walls and battlement, raise and maintain armies, develop highly scientific equipment for warfare, make treaties and pacts and use innumerable devices to safeguard themselves against aggression so that they can feel physically secure. Every individual also needs to feel psychologically secure and his behaviour is affeccted if he honest.   

3.     Recognition: It is certainly true that recognition is one of mans basic psychological needs, Every man wants to be recognised- wants to feel that he is someone of consequence- and his behaviour is oriented toward meeting this need.

4.      Response: Life would be intolerable and there would indeed be no civilization at all if people did not respond in some way to one another, for human interaction is essential to the existence of society. Response may vary from deep love to intense hate. Man will use a variety of behavioural devices to secure response from his fellow men.

5.      New Experience: Life would indeed be drab if new experience were limited and if after a few years of life there were nothing new to achieve. The need for new experience has served as a motivation to seek new knowledge, to look beyond the horizon and to know enter outer space. This need has aided progress of civilizations all over the world and will continue to do so.

These five psychological needs do not operate in isolation and mans behaviour does not result from the i—llence of a single need.